Petro confirms five more minors killed in bombings against FARC dissidents

Bogotá.- At least one minor died last week in a bombing by the Colombian Army against dissident FARC groups in the department of Arauca, bordering Venezuela, and four other teenagers died in another military operation in October in the southern department of Caquetá, confirmed this Monday the president, Gustavo Petro. The president, questioned in recent days about the death of seven minors in an attack he ordered last week against dissidents in the wild department of Guaviare, did not rule out that among the total of eight people killed in the operation in Arauca there may be another minor.

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"1 teenager rescued alive. 8 dead, including Legal Medicine confirmed that 1 16-year-old teenager died. There is another one whose age will take time to know, which may range from 15-25 years old", he wrote on X. With this, since October, there have already been at least 12 minors killed in Army bombings against the FARC dissidents commanded by alias Iván Mordisco, the most wanted man in Colombia. "Unfortunately, four teenagers died in Caquetá on October 1, seven in Guaviare on November 10, and 1 teenager in Arauca on November 13", summarized Petro, who reiterated that "they were all victims of forced recruitment by criminals" and that the guerrillas "were in offensive action". In the same publication, the president reported that a girl injured by the columns of the Central General Staff (EMC), the main dissident group of the FARC, "died today" on the Pan-American highway in Cauca (southwest), one of the departments most affected by the conflict. "Ivan Mordisco has broken the Rome Statute and my government will denounce him for being a war criminal," he affirmed.

The defender insists on stopping

The Ombudsman, Iris Marín, denounced on her social media the five new confirmed cases of minors killed in recent military operations and reiterated her call to Petro to suspend the bombings against targets where recruited minors may be present. "Regardless of whether they were fulfilling continuous combat functions, the principles of humanity and military necessity call these operations into question," criticized Marín, after recalling that the dissidents of Iván Mordisco "are primarily responsible for the crime of recruitment" in the country. "I implore you to think of an alternative," he appealed to Petro, who had already responded to a previous request that the bombings "are not suspended" while the "offensive actions of the armed groups of drug trafficking" continue. The president said that "if the bombings are suspended, the bosses are going to recruit more boys and girls", and added: "Military action is not the best, but if certain groups do not want to make peace, we will act". The opposition's criticism against Petro intensified on Saturday, when the Ombudsman's Office and Legal Medicine confirmed that among the 20 people killed in the Guaviare bombing, there were four girls and three boys, which also led the Military and Police Criminal Prosecutor's Office to open an investigation into what happened. Petro took responsibility and apologized to the families of the minors, although he defended the attack as the only way to protect the soldiers in the area.